The University of Vermont, for instance, will sell its "255 Holsteins and have faculty do their work on private farms that could be paid $20,000 a year for three years." Tom Vogelmann, dean of the University of Vermont's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, sees this as a "new model that land-grant institutions can work toward." The payments will benefit farms, while researchers will benefit from access to cows and the cost of keeping the animals will not be incurred by the universities.
The University of Minnesota will sell one of its three dairy herds to reduce its annual budget by $300,000, according to the Star Tribune. Greg Cuomo, associate dean for extension for the College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences said, "We've been figuring out how to best serve agriculture with finite resources." He also stated that the research on the herd to be sold, could easily be transferred to another University herd.
Some universities, however, have chosen not to sell or consolidate their herds at this point in time.
To read the Associated Press story, click here.
To read the Start Tribune story, click here.
Posted: 07/15/2010
